Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The strength of my Neighborhood.

Living in a very rural area has many reqards but, it also has it's trials. As rural people, we are very dependant on each other. The nearest town is a small one 17 miles on the Texas side of the line and the nearest hospital is 34 miles away. This hospital will check you over and send you on down the road if there is much wrong.

it is the people of this community that make it a wonderful place to live. We are there for each other in all things. Even before the rural fire departments were developed, everyone, young and old, men and women would get the gear that was needed and do their part. Often I used a wet burlap sack and a shovel while my husband took the tractor and plow and did his part. This was a way of life. Now days, I just fix sandwiches and do my part from a check point with the other women.

There are fewer people in this community than when I came here as a bride. Young people go where there are jobs and money. One knows that they will never be rich out here but let me tell you, riches do not always come as you dream of. It isn't the material things that count. It the mountain of friends that show up to help a neighbor when things go amiss. Holding them in their sorrow in the loss of a loved one, praying for them in times of need, helping get a crop in, or work with the cattle when there is sickness, and more often than this, it is just sharing a time during the day with each other on the phone, in the middle of the road, or over a cup of coffee. We are neighbors and family and friends. We need each other as we pass through time. As I age, I know this to be more so now than it was 45 years ago.

Jesus reminded us to Love our neighbor. He also taught that we are to be charitable, in our deeds before man. As we know that our Father in heaven takes care of each one of us, we are to do our part and take care of each other. In doing this we are also serving Him.

So here we are, So many of our neighbors are sick, getting older, and some just have everyday worries, but I know this.....As God cares about the birds of the field, the grass blowing in the wind and all of the little things of this earth....He cares even more about us. We are to follow in that example and serve each other in love and thankfulness that we can.

Well, what kind of a post is this, Maybe is is depressing, but I was just reminded this morning as we waited with neighbors for an ambulance just how fragil we are and that we really are our brothers keepers.

Thank you Father for your daily care, Thank you for friends and neighbors who are there for us in our time of need. Amen

Thursday, November 5, 2009

A Pet for a Day

Have you ever had a pet? Okay then, have you ever had a pet wasp or yellow jacket?
Alas there was such a thing in my childhood. I wasn't the only one to have one of these exotic pets. It was quite the thing in my little school. This was all brought back to me as I sit watching the yellow jackets swarm so thick around my doors and windows that I hesitate to even go outside. Today I am a little bit leary of them but there was once a time......

In the early 1950's in the fall of the year, the yellow jacket wasps were plentiful as they are today. Back then, no building was tight much less wasp proof. They were always in our classrooms, the entry way and on the bus. Early in the cool of the morning, being very brace, one could capture a wasp in their suttle stage and remove their STINGER. This was done by holding him down with someones pocket knife and using tweezers to pull that nasty poisonious stinger out. Look back a few words here.....Yes, I did say pocket knife. That was a tool of the trade in those days and no one thought a thing about a child having one in school. That is a different story and I shall have to write a post about it someday.

NOW.....back to the wasps. Having had his weapon removed, he was quite harmless. Now the wasp didn't know that yet so he was still quite fiesty as we held onto them and tied a piece of sewing thread aroung their middle. How we ever did this, I don't remember but we did. Often the thread was still attached to the spool and the pet had quite a long leash. Sometimes tape was used to secure the thread so it would not unwind further, as the wasp usually just ventured to the bright windows of the classroom.

Often, races were held. We all stood in a straight line and released our wasps to see whose would fly the furtherest before coming to a rest. This was measured by the thread that was released. Some kids would use a small stick and put through the spool and let the wasp fly quite a ways. To the wasps dismay, he would be reeled back in.

These pets were kept in the classroom and I am not sure why the teacher put up with them but to my recollection, it was she that taught us all about them. I never told my grandchildren this story, I am not sure I shared it with my children when they were of the age to want to try this stunt. Today, I don't think I am brave enough to hold one down and remove the stinger unless it is dead of course. At the end of the school day in our little rural school, the pets were disposed of. Sad but true they were euthenized. We had no heart for them at the end of the last recess. But I can tell you this, we did not need a Wii or a DS, we all had a pet wasp and guess what... it was free.